Ten Questions for Gabriel Bump
“I didn’t understand how important Chicago and South Shore were to me until I left.” —Gabriel Bump, author of Everywhere You Don't Belong
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Ten Questions
Read weekly interviews with authors to learn the inside stories of how their books were written, edited, and published; insights into the creative process; the best writing advice they’ve ever heard; and more.
Ten Questions for Charles Yu
“I had a substantially different version of this book that just wasn’t working, scrapped it, did that again, and then the third time was a charm.” —Charles Yu, author of Interior Chinatown
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Ten Questions for Danez Smith
“The book didn’t announce itself to me until 2017, when I went looking for it. I scanned over the poems I had been writing, scanning to see what my brain had been up to without me noticing.” —Danez Smith, author of Homie
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Ten Questions for Meng Jin
“I spent much of 2016 and 2017 not just trying to find my way back into the book but also trying to convince myself that art still mattered.” —Meng Jin, author of Little Gods
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Ten Questions for Anna Wiener
“It was important to me to err on the side of generosity in writing this book.” —Anna Wiener, author of Uncanny Valley
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Ten Questions for Amanda Michalopoulou
“I write every day when I am in the middle of a novel. And I write intensely when I am in the middle of a short story or a poem. At all other times I blame myself for not writing.” —Amanda Michalopoulou, author of God's Wife
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Ten Questions for Barbara Crooker
“The most challenging thing every time I sit down to write is to make the poem on the page as alive as the poem in my head.” —Barbara Crooker, author of Some Glad Morning
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Ten Questions for Tommy Pico
“Fridays I would slash and burn upwards of 80 percent of that week’s word haul. Anything that stayed had to earn its keep.” —Tommy Pico, author of Feed
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Ten Questions for Jeffrey Colvin
“I had to imagine the life of characters who shared some of my own history but had their own unique ways of being in the world.” —Jeffrey Colvin, author of Africaville
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Ten Questions for Jeff VanderMeer
“Writing—the writing it down—has increasingly become the least important part of the process. Living in the world of the novel, existing as the characters, viewing the day-to-day from their perspective, is the most important thing.” —Jeff VanderMeer, author of Dead Astronauts
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Ten Questions for Dexter Palmer
“Sometimes at the end of an eight-hour day I’d have a single paragraph to show for it.” —Dexter Palmer, author of Mary Toft; or, The Rabbit Queen
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Ten Questions for Nina MacLaughlin
“Much of the book I had no recollection of writing, and it was strange to be confronted with what I’d done, as though I was getting access to parts of my mind I hadn’t known existed.” —Nina MacLaughlin, author of Wake, Siren
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Ten Questions for Elaine Equi
“Don’t be afraid to cut it if it’s not working.” —Elaine Equi, author of The Intangibles
Ten Questions for Malcolm Tariq
“My preferred notebook is a sharp-cornered, hardcover Roaring Spring black marble composition book with 20# paper, item number 77461, college ruled—I’m a Pisces and need a line to keep me grounded.” —Malcolm Tariq, author of Heed the Hollow
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Ten Questions for Kai Cheng Thom
“I don’t trust any readers! And readers shouldn’t trust any writers. We’re all scoundrels, down to the last.” —Kai Cheng Thom, author of I Hope We Choose Love
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Ten Questions for Jami Attenberg
“In college I had a fiction teacher tell me to make every sentence so good that the reader would have to read the next one. So basic and obvious but I needed to hear it.” —Jami Attenberg, author of All This Could Be Yours
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Ten Questions for Mimi Lok
“I sometimes wish the writing process for me was faster, but things need to percolate in their own time.” —Mimi Lok, author of Last of Her Name
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Ten Questions for Adrienne Brodeur
“Read like your work depends on it. It does.” —Adrienne Brodeur, author of Wild Game
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Ten Questions for Saeed Jones
“The process of writing a memoir can swallow you whole if you aren’t careful.” —Saeed Jones, author of How We Fight For Our Lives.
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Ten Questions for Kimberly Reyes
“Maybe we are all just a bit frazzled with the state of the world today, but it’s not always easy to sit and focus. When I do find time to write, it’s like I’m back to myself. I’m back home.” —Kimberly Reyes, author of Running to Stand Still
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Ten Questions for Maaza Mengiste
“I didn’t always feel like writing but I still made myself sit down and do it. I practiced discipline and worked towards inspiration.” —Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King
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Ten Questions for Anne Boyer
“I had made a bargain with myself that if I lived, I would give a book of what I learned back to the world in return—an act of gratitude and sometimes vengeance—and I made it.” —Anne Boyer, author of The Undying
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Ten Questions for Oliver Baez Bendorf
“Nearly everything about writing a book is hard. The hope is that it’s harder, in some way, not to.” —Oliver Baez Bendorf, author of Advantages of Being Evergreen
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Ten Questions for Jillian Weise
“Sometimes the discourse on disability infringes on my imagination.” —Jillian Weise, author of Cyborg Detective
Ten Questions for Crystal Hana Kim
“I’ve learned that writing is not for the impatient.” —Crystal Hana Kim, author of If You Leave Me